One in Five U.S. Men Admit to Violence Against Partner

(HealthDay News) — One in five American men admit to using violence against his spouse or partner, a new survey shows. The research was published in the September-October issue of the Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine.

The research included 530 men. Their average age was 42. Of these men, about 78% were non-Hispanic white, 56% had continued their education beyond high school, and 84% had a job. The violence assessed included pushing and shoving, grabbing, throwing objects, slapping and hitting, kicking, biting, choking, burning, or threatening their partner with a weapon.

"Our study showed one out of every five men in the U.S. reported physical violence toward an intimate partner," study author Vijay Singh, MD, MPH, a clinical lecturer in the departments of emergency medicine and family medicine at the University of Michigan Medical School, said in a university news release.

More than 50% of the men in the study who reported using violence against their spouse or partner had at least one routine health visit within the past year. The researchers added that almost one-third of these men also visited the emergency room at least once in the past year. "Our research shows that male perpetrators of intimate partner violence seek routine medical services," Singh said. "This suggests that we may be missing an important opportunity in the primary care setting to identify their aggressive behavior and potentially intervene."